The present invention relates to an apparatus for mounting electronic components on a board, and a method for mounting electronic components.
In an apparatus for mounting electronic components on a board, electronic components stored in a supplying unit are picked up by a transfer head having nozzles for holding components by vacuum suction, and transferred onto the board, and mounted on specified mounting positions.
In this mounting operation, the transfer head moves on the board until reaching the specified mounting positions. On this moving path, electronic components may have been already mounted in a preceding process.
In such a case, the height of the transfer head must be set at the time of transfer so that electronic components held in the transfer head may not interfere with the existing electronic components.
In this case, regardless of the type of the board to mount on, generally, interference is prevented in mounting operation by elevating the transfer head to the highest transfer height of the mounting apparatus, so as not to cause an interference with the highest electronic components.
The height differs with the type of electronic components. When the board differs, the height of electronic components to be mounted is also different. If the transfer height of the transfer head in mounting operation is kept constant regardless of the type of the board, the transfer head is raised to an unnecessary height depending on the type of the electronic component to be mounted on the board. That is, the transfer head ascends and descends wastefully. Such unnecessary elevating motions are repeated in every mounting operation, and there is a loss time in the cycle time.
It is hence an object of the invention to present an apparatus and method for mounting electronic component capable of eliminating loss time and enhancing the mounting efficiency.
The apparatus for mounting electronic component of the invention, in order to pick up electronic components from a supplying unit of electronic components and mount them on a board, by a transfer head, comprises:
a) component height measuring means for measuring the height of components already mounted on the board before mounting operation by this apparatus for mounting electronic component, and
b) transfer height control means for controlling the transfer height, when the transfer head moves on the board in mounting operation, on the basis of result of measurement by this component height measuring means.
The method for mounting electronic component of the invention, in order to pick up electronic components from a supplying unit, and mount them on a board, by a transfer head, comprises the steps of:
a) measuring the height of components already mounted on the board before mounting operation of electronic component, and
b) controlling the transfer height, when the transfer head moves on the board in mounting operation, on the basis of result of measurement of component height.
According to the invention, the transfer height of the transfer head that picks up electronic components from a supplying unit and transfers them onto the board is determined on the basis of the height of components already mounted on the same board. Therefore, useless elevating motions of the transfer head are eliminated, the loss time is killed, and the mounting efficiency is enhanced.